Chicken Salad

Mmmmm, chicken. So versatile. So friendly to picky palates. So good any time of year.

Chicken salad comes in about a million variations, but every time I buy it, I’m always disappointed by something. The flavor. The ingredient quality. The texture.

This chicken salad uses homemade mayo, crisp fruit and veggies, and light seasoning to make it the perfect picnic or potluck food. You can omit the walnuts and raisins if you’re sensitive to nuts/don’t like raisins, and the whole thing is naturally dairy-free.

My preferred mayo is the homemade variety. You can find my super-easy recipe here, and feel free to experiment with different oils. Just don’t use any of the Omega-6 dominant oils like soybean, sunflower or safflower. Extra virgin olive and avocado oils are best. I’ve even tried a recipe using bacon fat, but it wasn’t my favorite.

As hot weather makes me less than excited about hot meals, this chicken salad also makes a stellar cold lunch or dinner. You can get good quality canned chicken from natural food markets if you don’t even feel like cooking and shredding chicken breast (let’s be real, it IS kind of time-consuming when you want a quick meal).

Another thing I love about this salad is that it’s very easy to rectify any mistakes. It’s just a matter of mixing and tasting ingredients until you have a flavor and texture combo you like.

My favorite way to eat this chicken salad is in a collard wrap, or atop a bed of spring greens (salad on your salad?!). It’s also good on plantain crackers. If you’ve discovered any other creative way to eat it, let me know!